Chicken Nanban 2 ways

Chicken nanban is fried chicken that’s been briefly marinated in a sweet-sour-salty and slightly spicy sauce or dressing called nanban sauce[1]. The recipe for basic, make-ahead-and-stock nanban sauce is over on Just Hungry[1]. Normally chicken nanban is deep-fried, but my bento friendly versions are either shallow-fried or simply panfried, cutting down a bit on the fat as well as avoiding the Fear of Frying that many people have. Quite a lot of popular Japanese bentos have deep fried items in them, but I usually to re-interpret the recipes so that they can be pan-fried or shallow-fried. (The chicken karaage that I have in the book[2] for example is shallow-fried in a frying pan.)

Chicken nanban is often served smothered with tartare sauce. I don’t think that’s appropriate for bentos, but you can pack a little container of mayo with a few dill pickle slices or small cornichons with your chicken nanban, to have the flavors of tartare sauce in deconstructed form so to speak.. Tabasco is an interesting addition if you like things spicy.

Both recipes make 4 to 5 bento-sized portions, although these little nuggets are so good that you might find them disappearing rather fast.

The photo below shows the lower-fat pan-fried chicken nanban on the left, and the shallow fried chicken nanban on the right. They both taste great, though the shallow fried chicken nanban is closer to the original. (After the photo shoot this ended up being my lunch as-is, with a bit of nanban sauce drizzled on the lettuce as a dressing. It was terrific.)

Pan Fried Chicken Nanban

By Makiko Itoh

Published: March 06, 2011

Japanese, chicken, bento-friendly

A panfried version of a popular Japanese chicken dish that us normally deep fried. The sour-sweet-salty nanban sauce is the key. This still has the nanban flavors, but leaves out the batter coating.

Directions:

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and vinegar, massage well with your hands and then pat dry with paper towels.

Toss the chicken pieces in cornstarch or potato starch, just enough to coat them.

Put the nanban sauce in a bowl ready to use.

Heat up a frying pan over medium-high heat, and add just enough oil to coat the bottom. Add the chicken pieces in a single layer. Cook until browned, then flip over and cook the other side until browned.

As soon as theyre cooked while theyre piping hot, put them into the nanban sauce, and stir around to coat them with the sauce . Leave the chicken in the sauce for as long as you like; if you just want a bit of sourness, take them out after a minute or two, and if you want it stronger tasting, leave them in the sauce until cool. If you make them the night before, Id recommend taking the chicken out of the sauce when its cooled down, though if you love sour foods you can try leaving the chicken in the sauce overnight.

Drain off the sauce to pack the chicken in a bento. optionally with tartare saucr or mayonnaise and pickles (see above).

Shallow-fried Chicken Nanban

By Makiko Itoh

Published: March 06, 2011

chicken, japanese, bento-friendly

This version of chicken nanban is shallow-fried in a frying pan. It has the thin egg-batter coating that is characteristic of the deep friedchicken nanban you get in restaurants.

Directions:

Cut the chicken into bite sized pieces. Sprinkle with salt, pepper and vinegar, massage well with your hands and then pat dry with paper towels.

Toss the chicken pieces in cornstarch or potato starch, then dip them into the beaten egg.

Have the nanban sauce ready in a bowl.

Heat up about 1/2 inch / 1 cm of oil in a frying pan over high heat. Add the chicken pieces as soon ad the oil is hot enough so that a bit of the eggy batter dribbled into it gets cooks instantaneously. Fry until golden brown, Do not overcrowd the pan.

As soon as each piece is done, immediately put it into the nanban sauce. Leave the chicken in the sauce for as long as you like, as with the Panfried Chicken Nanban.